Sphere of Influence

Mobile Suit Gundam: High Frontier

Life In The Universal Century

Sphere of Influence

A third type of space colony was introduced in Episodes 14 and 15 of Gundam ZZ.

Seen only briefly during a few establishing shots, Moon Moon is a spherical habitat based on the O’Neill “Island One” design: a 500-meter (1,640-foot) Bernal sphere.

Rotating at two RPM, with a habitable area of 1¼ square kilometers (½ square mile) or 125 hectares (310 acres), the Bernal sphere supports 10,000 people in three villages spaced equidistantly around its 1.6-kilometer (one-mile) equator.

This doesn’t sound very large in comparison with the O’Neill “Island Three” habitats. It is, in fact, about the size of one of the seventy-two farming satellites that encircle each of the traditional “open type” space colonies. Even so, the Empire State Building would fit neatly along its axis, with ample room for left over for the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the giant zeppelin Hindenburg and the luxury ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II.

Although it never appeared on screen or in any illustrations, the back story to Gundam F91 establishes that, prior to their invasion and conquest of Frontier IV in Side 4 (L1) in UC 0123, the Crossbone Vanguard was founded and maintained in UC 0106 in a place called Round Island. As the name implies, Round Island is a Bernal sphere design. Originally a privately owned space habitat built in Side 1 (L5) as a “construction shack” for the Sides, it was purchased from the Colony Management Corporation by the Baffo Aerodynamics Konzern on 8 July 0084.

A third Bernal sphere appeared in Episode 44 of V Gundam. Like Round Island, Blue 3 was a “construction shack” used to build the orbiting “psycho-wave” station Angel Halo. In this episode, it was being used as a staging area to house the psychic disciples of Maria Pia Ammonia prior to their incorporation into Angel Halo’s psychowave generator. Like the other Bernal spheres in the Gundam saga, it followed the 500-meter-diameter O’Neill specification, but otherwise it was a somewhat new and original design, with a toroidal mirror tethered around its equator and a large (430-meter) conical docking bay attached to the southern (starboard) pole.